Part 6 of a Six-Part Series on Using Kata (or Form) For Martial Arts Development

My series of columns has presented what kata or form practice can do for you and your students; but we all know that many, if not most, don’t experience the good effect I have been describing, as a result of well thought out and executed practice.

Why not? What is preventing a student from realizing these benefits?

Here are four of the most common mistakes that keep you on the track of failure, rather than success, during your kata or form practice.

1. If you are more concerned about how your face looks than how your hand or foot hits, then you are going in the wrong direction.

You will not develop real power and authority in your striking, if you are just playacting. I think any serious student who is well intentioned and is on the right path will eventually discover some great things about hitting. You had a vision of how you thought a Black Belt should be able to hit; however, the sure result of this mistake is to never reach it.

2. If your breathing counters everything we know about fighting…then discovery is not on your horizon.

If your breathing counters everything that we know about fighting, then, perhaps, you are training incorrectly. In other words, really great fighters move smoothly and hit without hesitation and with great accuracy and speed of combinations. Try this experiment: Breath hard during every movement and punch (or kick) three times very fast. Now, try it again, but this time just let your breath be natural. No huffing, puffing or grunting. As fast as you can. What do you discover with this exercise? Hard breath during every move slows you down. That doesn’t mean you never have a hard breath; it just means that you don’t always have hard breath. If you do, then you are limiting your exploration into hitting power.

Breathing hard during every move is for the most basic beginner who holds his or her breath. I don’t think you need that anymore. Move to more advanced technique.

3. If your feet are pounding on the floor, then you will never learn to “ground”.

If your feet are making a stomping sound every time you step, then your weight is falling out of control in a forward direction. You are bouncing up and down like a porpoise. If you are struck in the middle of this move, then you are easily knocked to the ground. If you finish the move, then you are easily swept or manipulated because you are not in control of your body. You should move smoothly, like a Samurai with a sword, not like hitting with a sledgehammer to ring a bell at the county fair.

4. If your eyes are closed, wandering or blinking, then they are betraying the fact that your mind is wandering, instead of doing active meditation.

You can lie on your back, close your eyes and work your way through a kata. This is passive meditation. It has some limited value, but it is not kata or form practice. That takes ACTIVE mediation, based on hitting, throwing or subduing another human being. You have to look at them. You have to be assertive and dominate.

No one who is looking around, blinking or has his eyes closed can possibly be practicing being assertive and dominate. When you punch or kick someone hard enough to incapacitate them (read knock them down, you cannot look around the room. You must be looking at your partner with great focus…before, during and after the conclusion of the technique.

Train like this in your kata and form and you might discover some great things.

Some years ago, one of my instructors, Koyoshi Nishime Sensei (Cincinnati, Ohio), revealed to me a number of things about kata that I never understood. One of the most important concerned how the development of power was like a two-headed snake. Not only can that power damage the attacker, but also it can damage the striking artist. as well.

During a couple of years, he made some corrections in how I was throwing the technique, or moving in my stances, or how to improve my posture in the kata. My old body began to thank him, as pains and strains begin to diminish and disappear.

Having trained many students in my career to this point and seeing many older karate students with injuries in the shoulder, back, hips or knee, I was very receptive to his instruction. It made sense that the more power that you create the more likely you will cause injury…to the attacker or to yourself. I had been around a classical dance instructor (business partner) and seen how he made a big point about posture and bone alignment; and, on the surface, I had some understanding.

However, sometimes, you are just ready to learn something you should have learned long ago.

If you do serious form or kata work in your school, have you noticed that people start having stiff necks, stiff upper backs, “tennis” elbow, lower back pain or knee problems at the Brown Belt level and above? Why is that? I believe that the normal student takes some time to start to develop some power. This is when the injuries start to occur. After all, if the punch lacks the power to do any real damage to the attacker, then it is unlikely that it is causing damage to your own body. Start developing the power and watch out.

Here are common problems to watch for in kata or form training at full power. Many of these problems won’t show up immediately, but practice this way for some years and be prepared for medical bills or an early retirement from your martial arts career.

1. Rotating the fist too early: If you are throwing a straight line punch, then the fist should rotate at the very end of the arm movement. If you rotate it too soon, then the elbow will fly out and cause tennis elbow.
2. Raising the shoulder: If your shoulder rises as you punch, then you are pulling the shoulder from its socket. A stiff neck, tight shoulders and a sore upper back will make your sleep less enjoyably. Keep it down.
3. Locking the knee out when you kick: All kicks must immediately snap back. While it looks impressive to snap it hard and hold it out, that energy will center in your knee instead of fly out the end of your leg/foot. Knee surgery is on your horizon.
4. Arching your lower back: You should stay tucked throughout your kata or form. A bottom, which sticks out, is damaging your lower back.
5. Knee out of alignment: Assume a forward stance. Lean your knee to the left or right. Notice the unnatural feel? Here is the rule to remember. Wherever the toes point, the knee should point. Move your knee in or out of that line and damage is sure to follow. This is especially true during time or when you are working with a partner or fighting.

Remember, classical technique, practiced properly, will never cause injury to you. As an instructor, start paying close attention to these issues when your students are practicing. If you are diligent, then you will help your students develop power safely and keep them practicing for many years to come.

Concepts, I said, not techniques. No matter how you fight, i.e., with weapons, grappling, hitting, kicking, etc., there are certain concepts, which are universal.

The best fighters are always:

1. Focused with purpose.

2. Calm of mind.

3. Calculating in strategy.

4. Efficient of movement and energy.

5. Incredibly powerful.

These are core skills of any great warrior and, yet, to watch much of what is promoted as fighting today, one would think that fighting is only about testosterone. Much of what I see being passed off as a fighter does not pass the test. They are not focused or calm, don’t seem to have any strategy, waste energy and are not powerful enough to hit with authority.

This list of skills includes three of the five core abilities that exist primarily in the mental arena, not the physical. Most modern martial artists, at least those who truly want to learn to fight, only concentrate on the physical. Proper kata, or form training, will help develop all of these areas, and that is why this training is as valuable to the modern world as it was to the ancient.

1. Focused with purpose: Ask a normal person to be wildly physical for several minutes. Encourage them to stay visually and mentally focused. Most can’t do it. Kata practice can help them.

2. Calm of mind: Watch the film of any great fighter. He always has a calm purpose. He doesn’t grimace and make wild facial expressions. He just hit with no hesitation and with complete purpose. Kata practice should do the same. This doesn’t mean that you never grimace; it only means that you don’t always grimace.

3. Calculating in strategy: You must develop the skill to stop thinking about form or function…and, yet, have full control of both. Proper form, or kata, practice should reach the level where you no longer think about form or processes. This allows the mind to move ahead in time and create strategies.

4. Efficient of movement and energy: You can always tell the beginning fighters from the advanced ones by how tense and uptight the beginners are. They are burning energy recklessly and it affects their performance greatly. Classical training should address this in the forms practice because every muscle that is not needed to execute the movement should be relaxed and prepared for the next one. The instructor can help the student discover this if he is diligent in his use of form practice.

5. Incredibly powerful: When I watch many people perform kata, I wonder what they are thinking about when they execute some of their movements. What was the purpose of that punch, or chop, they just used? Was it to hit something hard enough to break it or was it just a dance move? Certainly, there is a place for slow and deliberate movement, such as is done in a Tai Chi type of training, but that training is done to develop control of the movement through its entire range.

When Bill Wallace (Superfoot) was my instructor more than 30 years ago, I used to watch him do a kick in the air with a slow and deliberate pace. This gave him control of the movement through its entire range. Then, he would “crack” one at full speed. That was application. Both are important in form or kata practice.

With a good instructor to guide you, kata or form practice should help you work in all of these areas, without the distraction of another fighter. That’s why it’s called active meditation.

The goal for the ancient and modern martial artist is to learn how to develop a stable, mobile and fluid platform that can move in any direction and EXPLODE arms, legs, hands and feet with tremendous force. It is easier to reach these goals if kata or form is used to understand the critical importance of controlling and utilizing the center of the body.

The athletic ability to connect the top and the bottom of the body, while in motion is controlled by what classical martial artists have always called the “center” of the body. They are referring to the area just below the belly button and enveloping the whole pelvic area. If you look at a skeleton, you will know what I mean. The top of the body is connected via a chain of connections, to the spine, which ends at the tailbone. The bottom half of the body starts at the pelvis bone and includes the legs to the feet.

There are “sockets” or “joints” that connect the top of the leg to the pelvis and the knee. We call them a hip socket or a knee joint. The same is true with the arm to the shoulder.

There are no sockets between the top and bottom half of the body.

This area is controlled by masses of sinews, ligaments, muscles, etc.; and this area has the unique property of connecting the top of the body to the bottom half of the body in a rather miraculous design, which allows bending, twisting and exploding in almost any direction. If you do not properly control this area, then you are only punching with the top half of your body…maybe even only your arm…instead of the entire mass of your entire body. The same would be true of a kick.

An outstanding athlete is born with the ability to control this area. Classical martial arts schools must teach normal people how to do the same.

Besides power, this “centering” concept also holds great impact in the movement arena.

I’m sure that you’ve noticed, as have I, that many NFL football players can run at full-speed and be hit from almost any angle by another human being, also running at a high rate of speed, without falling, even though at the moment of contact, they are only standing on one foot. How do they do this? At our school, we would say they are “centering”. Athletes who are capable of doing this are quite remarkable, but they could never teach you to perform this feat because they don’t really know why they can do it.

Mike Tyson had a tremendous hitting strength by the age of 18, but Mike could never teach you how to hit like he does. He doesn’t really know how he does it…he just always seemed to be able to hit hard.

The problem of every classical school, as described above, is to take normal people, with less than normal athletic ability, and teach them to do unusual and dynamic things. Classical schools have faced this problem since the days of the Shaolin Temple, when young men, of various backgrounds and abilities, entered a program to develop into warrior monks and change their natural abilities.

In your form or kata training, you must carefully study the use of the center of the body and use that training to accelerate your power and movement abilities. To properly “connect” to this area of your body requires an instructor to guide you, but does not require a partner. This is one of those times when you need to look into yourself… physically, mentally and spiritually…to cause a change throughout your entire being.

We’ll look at kata more next month. Until then, keep training.

Weight trainers, gymnasts, dancers and football or basketball players who have stepped into the professional ring have been quickly destroyed…athletic ability or not.

The goal for the future, dynamic martial artist is to learn how to develop a stable, mobile and fluid platform that can move in any direction, and EXPLODE arms, legs, hands and feet with tremendous force. With some modern schools, this is sometimes confused with explosive dance or gymnastic moves. I suggest that this type of form should be called martial dance, and not martial art.

There is nothing wrong with martial dance. Many cultures have this tradition. In Okinawa, the traditional dances that are performed have many martial movements, but their intent is not to teach combat, but to entertain. The same can be said about classical theater in China. There are many examples of martial style movements, even martial weapons involved in the story plot of the play, but the intent is to entertain…not to fight. Even the traveling Shaolin monks, who appear in many U.S. cities, are clearly all about entertaining and not about combat.

When we are more concerned with how a movement or set of movements looks than we are about how it is used for combat, then we have moved from the area of martial art training to the area of entertainment.

Using kata, or form, to aid the development of a fighter is lost on people in the fighting arena because of this confusion. The “effectiveness” of kata, or form, must first divest itself from using any theatrical props or music, which exists for entertainment value, instead of combat training. That means any prop that is a facsimile of a weapon, instead of the real thing. Clothing that is not functional. Lighting that is distracting.

A classical view of form or kata training should include these seven elements.

1. Move forward, backward or at any angle smoothly and with graceful execution.
2. The body should not “porpoise”, but should move level and smoothly on one plane, unless the additional planes of movement are planned movement, not sloppy execution.
3. All changes of direction are made with perfect balance.
4. All strikes, of whatever type, must be dynamic (of great power).
5. The eyes and mind must be totally focused.
6. All movement is totally efficient. This means that all of the body not needed for the motion is relaxed. No champion fighter was ever tight, tense or frigid, whether in body or countenance.
7. The mind must move from a civilian mode to a warrior mode, during the entire sequence of the form or kata…and then return to a calm civilian mode. This active meditation and mental preparation for combat has great value.

In other words, as I stated at the top of the column, the practicing martial artist endeavors to develop a stable, mobile and fluid platform that can move in any direction and EXPLODE arms, legs, hands and feet with tremendous force and with intention to control or destroy an attacker.

Gruesome, but true.

If you are practicing kata or form in this manner, then you are probably discovering that it is an effective tool to help you become the warrior within and without.

If not, then you will find the exercise very useless.

Until next month, keep teaching and training